"One more time for the world some more"
Review by Stephen Ellis

Every so often little rewards seem to come to each of us. Rewards for being “nice”, for keeping the faith (or the peace), or just for being in the right place at the right time. Then there are other times when you must have really pissed off the Cosmic and were totally unaware of it, and rather than a reward you get a slap up side the head, or in the case of this CD, a very bad practical joke pulled on you.
   As you learned, readers and prog music listeners out there could probably tell by the track listing, this CD is mostly covers songs. And not just any songs but some of the best known prog songs by some of the most recognizable prog artists. I’m sorry, but a reggae version of Close to the Edge or John Lennon’s Woman is Nigger of the World is not something I ever wanted to hear. I’m afraid that each time I hear CTTE that damn reggae rhythm is going to keep creeping in.
   Mr. Annellsson himself in the liner notes said, “Other possible titles for the record could have been 'Songs You Shouldn’t Cover' or 'Covers From Hell'. Frankly, Covers From Hell fits exactly for me. There are songs from King Crimson, Brian Eno, lots of Yes tunes, The Beatles, and the only song on here that could be okay is Zappa’s “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body”. Considering the source, this one would probably make the late Mr. Zappa smile.
   Adding to the silliness of this entire CD are the very short pieces pen by Mr. Annellsson himself. As stated above, no real drummer so you end up with Hans all alone in a studio making funny songs. Now if this was done as a parody, much like Weird Al does so cleverly maybe this would work. I could just hear South Side of the Sky as a polka tune. Now that would be funny. Unfortunately I believe Hans Annellsson is deadly serious with this release, and that is truly scary.
   The only song on this entire CD that does not make me want to run and throw up is the cover of Afterglow. Even at that the end of the song seems to go off on some sort of techno wanna be thingy. You should here the “funky version” of Onward from Tormato. Man that really hurts.
   To be totally honest, it is extremely rare for me to like any covers of any songs. Heck I even hated Steve Hackett’s reworking of his own Genesis songs on the “Genesis Revisited” CD he released a few years back. So this CD really was something, I had to force myself to listen to all 16 tracks. The recording is not bad but the sound is not fleshed out very much as it is mostly one person playing with numerous keyboards, sampling machines sequencers, etc.
   This CD is horrible. Might work as a horrible party joke after the crowd has thinned out and everyone has a great buzz working. On second thought, this CD would be a total buzz killer.
Rating: 3.5 of 10 if simply taken as a joke. 0 of 10 if taken seriously


Stephen Ellis 2002-08-29
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